California lawmakers unanimously voted to return prime beachfront property to descendants of a Black couple who were stripped of their resort for African Americans due to racist harassment more than 100 years ago.
The Manhattan Beach resort purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce became “Bruce’s Beach,” the first West Coast resort for Black people when racial segregation kept them from enjoying many beaches.
The resort included a lodge, café, dance hall, and dressing tents with bathing suits for rent. The popular haunt became a target for the Klu Klux Klan, who tried to burn it town, and white neighbors who incessantly harassed the couple and their clientele.
The city of Manhattan Beach used eminent domain to seize the land in 1924 and used the area as a park.
“Bruce’s Beach became a place where Black families traveled from far and wide to be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of a day at the beach,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said when the county announced plans to return the property in April.
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